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56-449: Fifth Element may refer to: Elements [ edit ] Aether (classical element) , the fifth classical element, also known as quintessence Boron , the (modern) element with atomic number 5 on the periodic table Arts and entertainment [ edit ] The Fifth Element , a 1997 film by Luc Besson starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich The Fifth Element (video game) ,

112-590: A 1998 video game based on the film The Fifth Sacred Thing , which has also been referred to as The Fifth Element , is a novel by Starhawk Music [ edit ] The 5th Element (Tynisha Keli album) , 2010 The 5th Element (Kellee Maize album) Fifth Element (Pathfinder album) 5th Element , the 1999 album by reggae and dancehall artist Bounty Killer "5th Element", 2005 hip-hop song by Nova Scotia rapper Classified See also [ edit ] Five elements (disambiguation) Quintessence (disambiguation) Topics referred to by

168-408: A deity, Aether , the son of Erebus and Nyx in traditional Greek mythology. Aether is related to αἴθω "to incinerate", and intransitive "to burn, to shine" (related is the name Aithiopes ( Ethiopians ; see Aethiopia ), meaning "people with a burnt (black) visage"). In Plato 's Timaeus (58d) speaking about air, Plato mentions that "there is the most translucent kind which is called by

224-429: A distance instead of action through direct contact. Newton also explained this changing rarity and density of aether in his letter to Robert Boyle in 1679. He illustrated aether and its field around objects in this letter as well and used this as a way to inform Robert Boyle about his theory. Although Newton eventually changed his theory of gravitation to one involving force and the laws of motion, his starting point for

280-671: A formal curriculum. There was, however, a distinction between senior and junior members. Two women are known to have studied with Plato at the Academy, Axiothea of Phlius and Lasthenia of Mantinea . Diogenes Laërtius divided the history of the Academy into three: the Old, the Middle, and the New. At the head of the Old he put Plato, at the head of the Middle Academy, Arcesilaus , and of

336-597: A gymnasium called Ptolemy . Cicero describes a visit to the site of the Academy one afternoon, which was "quiet and deserted at that hour of the day". Despite the Platonic Academy being destroyed in the first century BC, the philosophers continued to teach Platonism in Athens during the Roman era , but it was not until the early fifth century ( c.  410 ) that a revived academy (which had no connection with

392-534: A medium that "flows" continually downward toward the Earth's surface and is partially absorbed and partially diffused. This "circulation" of aether is what he associated the force of gravity with to help explain the action of gravity in a non-mechanical fashion. This theory described different aether densities, creating an aether density gradient. His theory also explains that aether was dense within objects and rare without them. As particles of denser aether interacted with

448-525: A new phase known as Middle Platonism . When the First Mithridatic War began in 88 BC, Philo of Larissa left Athens and took refuge in Rome , where he seems to have remained until his death. In 86 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla laid siege to Athens and conquered the city, causing much destruction. It was during the siege that he laid waste to the Academy, as Plutarch relates: "He laid hands upon

504-465: A pool. Later, when it was proved that the nature of light wave is transverse instead of longitudinal, Huygens' theory was replaced by subsequent theories proposed by Maxwell , Einstein and de Broglie , which rejected the existence and necessity of aether to explain the various optical phenomena. These theories were supported by the results of the Michelson–Morley experiment in which evidence for

560-469: A theory proposed by Johann II Bernoulli , who was recognized in 1736 with the prize of the French Academy. In his theory, all space is permeated by aether containing "excessively small whirlpools". These whirlpools allow for aether to have a certain elasticity, transmitting vibrations from the corpuscular packets of light as they travel through. This theory of luminiferous aether would influence

616-481: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Aether (classical element) The word αἰθήρ ( aithḗr ) in Homeric Greek means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky". In Greek mythology , it was thought to be the pure essence that the gods breathed, filling the space where they lived, analogous to the air breathed by mortals. It is also personified as

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672-416: Is some evidence for what today would be considered strictly scientific research: Simplicius reports that Plato had instructed the other members to discover the simplest explanation of the observable, irregular motion of heavenly bodies: "by hypothesizing what uniform and ordered motions is it possible to save the appearances relating to planetary motions." (According to Simplicius, Plato's colleague Eudoxus

728-660: The Academic School , was founded at Athens by Plato circa 387 BC. Aristotle studied there for twenty years (367–347 BC) before founding his own school, the Lyceum . The Academy persisted throughout the Hellenistic period as a skeptical school, until coming to an end after the death of Philo of Larissa in 83 BC. The Platonic Academy was destroyed by the Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. A neo-Platonic academy

784-415: The philosopher's stone itself. With the 18th century physics developments , physical models known as "aether theories" made use of a similar concept for the explanation of the propagation of electromagnetic and gravitational forces. As early as the 1670s, Newton used the idea of aether to help match observations to strict mechanical rules of his physics. The early modern aether had little in common with

840-399: The wave theory of light proposed by Christiaan Huygens , in which light traveled in the form of longitudinal waves via an "omnipresent, perfectly elastic medium having zero density, called aether". At the time, it was thought that in order for light to travel through a vacuum, there must have been a medium filling the void through which it could propagate, as sound through air or ripples in

896-587: The Academic curriculum would have closely resembled the one canvassed in Plato's Republic . Others, however, have argued that such a picture ignores the obvious peculiar arrangements of the ideal society envisioned in that dialogue. The subjects of study almost certainly included mathematics as well as the philosophical topics with which the Platonic dialogues deal, but there is little reliable evidence. There

952-745: The Academy located on either side of the Cratylus street in the area of Colonos and Plato's Academy (Postal Code GR 10442). On either side of the Cratylus street are important monuments, including the Sacred House Geometric Era, the Gymnasium (first century BC – first century AD), the Proto-Helladic Vaulted House and the Peristyle Building (fourth century BC), which

1008-428: The Academy strongly emphasized a version of Academic skepticism closely similar to Pyrrhonism . Arcesilaus was followed by Lacydes of Cyrene (241–215 BC), Evander and Telecles (jointly) (205 – c.  165 BC ), and Hegesinus ( c.  160 BC ). The New or Third Academy begins with Carneades , in 155 BC, the fourth Scholarch in succession from Arcesilaus. It was still largely skeptical, denying

1064-434: The Academy were Speusippus (347–339 BC), Xenocrates (339–314 BC), Polemon (314–269 BC), and Crates ( c.  269 –266 BC). Other notable members of the Academy include Aristotle , Heraclides , Eudoxus , Philip of Opus , and Crantor . In at least Plato's time, the school did not have any particular doctrine to teach; rather, Plato (and probably other associates of his) posed problems to be studied and solved by

1120-640: The Dioscuri – who were patron gods of Sparta – the Spartan army would not ravage these original "groves of Academe" when they invaded Attica . Their piety was not shared by the Roman Sulla , who had the sacred olive trees of Athena cut down in 86 BC to build siege engines . Among the religious observances that took place at the Akademeia was a torchlit night race from altars within

1176-503: The Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I banned the teaching; somewhat later he repeated and tightened the ban. Controversial in research is whether there was – as the chronicler Ioannes Malalas claims – a special imperial decree ordering an end to the teaching of philosophy in Athens, or whether it was just a matter of implementing a general ban on teaching people who resisted baptism. The last scholarch of

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1232-612: The Neoplatonic Academy was Damascius (d. 540). According to Agathias , its remaining members looked for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I in his capital at Ctesiphon , carrying with them precious scrolls of literature and philosophy, and to a lesser degree of science. After a peace treaty between the Persian and the Byzantine Empire in 532 , their personal security (an early document in

1288-410: The New, Lacydes . Sextus Empiricus enumerated five divisions of the followers of Plato. He made Plato founder of the first Academy; Arcesilaus of the second; Carneades of the third; Philo and Charmadas of the fourth; and Antiochus of the fifth. Cicero recognised only two Academies, the Old and New, and had the latter commence with Arcesilaus. Plato's immediate successors as " Scholarch " of

1344-474: The Roman empire and had been the state religion since the late fourth century, and so the demise of this late antique Platonic school was only a matter of time. Although the Athenian Neoplatonists clearly rejected Christianity and their school was a center of intellectual resistance to the prevailing religion, they remained unchallenged for a surprisingly long time. It was not until 529 that

1400-399: The aether of classical elements from which the name was borrowed. These aether theories are considered to be scientifically obsolete, as the development of special relativity showed that Maxwell's equations do not require the aether for the transmission of these forces. Einstein noted that his own model which replaced these theories could itself be thought of as an aether, as it implied that

1456-472: The aether was "subtler than light". Fludd cites the 3rd-century view of Plotinus , concerning the aether as penetrative and non-material. Quintessence (𝓠) is the Latinate name of the fifth element used by medieval alchemists for a medium similar or identical to that thought to make up the heavenly bodies. It was noted that there was very little presence of quintessence within the terrestrial sphere. Due to

1512-626: The city to Prometheus' altar in the Akademeia. The road to Akademeia was lined with the gravestones of Athenians, and funeral games also took place in the area as well as a Dionysiac procession from Athens to the Hekademeia and then back to the city. What was later to be known as Plato's school appears to have been part of Academia. Plato inherited the property at the age of thirty, with informal gatherings which included Theaetetus of Sunium , Archytas of Tarentum, Leodamas of Thasos , and Neoclides. According to Debra Nails, Speusippus "joined

1568-422: The classical element. This idea relates to the hypothetical form of dark energy postulated as an explanation of observations of an accelerating universe. It has also been called a fifth fundamental force . The motion of light was a long-standing investigation in physics for hundreds of years before the 20th century. The use of aether to describe this motion was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, including

1624-403: The empty space between objects had its own physical properties. Despite the early modern aether models being superseded by general relativity, occasionally some physicists have attempted to reintroduce the concept of aether in an attempt to address perceived deficiencies in current physical models. One proposed model of dark energy has been named " quintessence " by its proponents, in honor of

1680-466: The foundation of the House of Wisdom in 832. The site was rediscovered in the twentieth century, in the modern Akadimia Platonos neighbourhood; considerable excavation has been accomplished and visiting the site is free. The site of the Academy is located near Colonus , approximately 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north of Athens' Dipylon gates . Visitors today can visit the archaeological site of

1736-417: The four terrestrial classical elements were subject to change and naturally moved linearly. The first element however, located in the celestial regions and heavenly bodies, moved circularly and had none of the qualities the terrestrial classical elements had. It was neither hot nor cold, neither wet nor dry. With this addition the system of elements was extended to five and later commentators started referring to

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1792-415: The group in about 390 BC". She claims, "It is not until Eudoxus of Cnidos arrives in the mid-380s BC that Eudemus recognizes a formal Academy." There is no historical record of the exact time the school was officially founded, but modern scholars generally agree that the time was the mid-380s, probably sometime after 387 BC, when Plato is thought to have returned from his first visit to Sicily. Originally,

1848-521: The historical Academy of Plato. The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens . It was located in or beside a grove of olive trees dedicated to the goddess Athena , which was on the site even before Cimon enclosed the precincts with a wall, and was called Academia after its original owner, Academus , an Attic hero in Greek mythology . Academus was said to have saved Athens from attack by Sparta, revealing where Helen of Troy

1904-501: The history of freedom of religion ) was guaranteed. It has been speculated that the Neoplatonic Academy did not altogether disappear. After his exile, Simplicius (and perhaps some others) may have travelled to Carrhae near Edessa . From there, the students of an Academy-in-exile could have survived into the ninth century, long enough to facilitate an Arabic revival of the neoplatonist commentary tradition in Baghdad , beginning with

1960-527: The low presence of quintessence, earth could be affected by what takes place within the heavenly bodies. This theory was developed in the 14th century text The testament of Lullius , attributed to Ramon Llull . The use of quintessence became popular within medieval alchemy. Quintessence stemmed from the medieval elemental system, which consisted of the four classical elements, and aether, or quintessence, in addition to two chemical elements representing metals: sulphur , "the stone which burns", which characterized

2016-571: The many local wars. The site of the Academy was sacred to Athena; it had sheltered her religious cult since the Bronze Age . The site was perhaps also associated with the twin hero-gods Castor and Polydeuces (the Dioscuri ), since the hero Akademos associated with the site was credited with revealing to the brothers where the abductor Theseus had hidden their sister Helen . Out of respect for its long tradition and its association with

2072-444: The meetings were held on Plato's property as often as they were at the nearby Academy gymnasium ; this remained so throughout the fourth century. Though the academy was open to the public, the main participants were upper-class men. It did not, at least during Plato's time, charge fees for membership. Therefore, there was probably not at that time a "school" in the sense of a clear distinction between teachers and students, or even

2128-480: The modern understanding and explanation of gravity came from his original aether model on gravitation. Footnotes Citations Akademia 37°59′33″N 23°42′29″E  /  37.99250°N 23.70806°E  / 37.99250; 23.70806 The Academy ( Ancient Greek : Ἀκαδημία , romanized :  Akadēmía ), variously known as Plato's Academy , the Platonic Academy , and

2184-473: The motion of aether was conclusively absent. The results of the experiment influenced many physicists of the time and contributed to the eventual development of Einstein's theory of special relativity . In 1682, Jakob Bernoulli formulated the theory that the hardness of the bodies depended on the pressure of the aether. Aether has been used in various gravitational theories as a medium to help explain gravitation and what causes it. A few years later, aether

2240-539: The name of aether (αἰθήρ)" but otherwise he adopted the classical system of four elements. Aristotle , who had been Plato's student at the Academy , agreed on this point with his former mentor, emphasizing additionally that fire has sometimes been mistaken for aether. However, in his Book On the Heavens he introduced a new "first" element to the system of the classical elements of Ionian philosophy . He noted that

2296-541: The new first one as the fifth and also called it aether , a word that Aristotle had used in On the Heavens and the Meteorology . Aether differed from the four terrestrial elements; it was incapable of motion of quality or motion of quantity. Aether was only capable of local motion. Aether naturally moved in circles, and had no contrary, or unnatural, motion. Aristotle also stated that celestial spheres made of aether held

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2352-552: The original Academy) was established by some leading neoplatonists . The origins of neoplatonist teaching in Athens are uncertain, but when Proclus arrived in Athens in the early 430s, he found Plutarch of Athens and his colleague Syrianus teaching in an Academy there. The neoplatonists in Athens called themselves "successors" ( diadochoi , but of Plato) and presented themselves as an uninterrupted tradition reaching back to Plato, but there cannot have actually been any geographical, institutional, economic or personal continuity with

2408-431: The original academy. The school seems to have been a private foundation, conducted in a large house which Proclus eventually inherited from Plutarch and Syrianus. The heads of the Neoplatonic Academy were Plutarch of Athens , Syrianus , Proclus , Marinus , Isidore , and finally Damascius . The Neoplatonic Academy reached its apex under Proclus (died 485). Severianus studied under him. The last Greek philosophers of

2464-452: The others. There is evidence of lectures given, most notably Plato's lecture "On the Good"; but probably the use of dialectic was more common. According to an unverifiable story, dated of some 700 years after the founding of the school, above the entrance to the Academy was inscribed the phrase ΑΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΗΤΟΣ ΜΗΔΕΙΣ ΕΙΣΙΤΩ, "Let no-one ignorant of geometry enter here." Many have imagined that

2520-501: The possibility of knowing an absolute truth. Carneades was followed by Clitomachus (129 – c.  110 BC ) and Philo of Larissa ("the last undisputed head of the Academy," c.  110 –84 BC). According to Jonathan Barnes , "It seems likely that Philo was the last Platonist geographically connected to the Academy." Around 90 BC, Philo's student Antiochus of Ascalon began teaching his own rival version of Platonism rejecting Skepticism and advocating Stoicism , which began

2576-399: The principle of combustibility, and mercury , which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties. This elemental system spread rapidly throughout all of Europe and became popular with alchemists, especially in medicinal alchemy. Medicinal alchemy then sought to isolate quintessence and incorporate it within medicine and elixirs. Due to quintessence's pure and heavenly quality, it

2632-477: The rare aether they were attracted back to the dense aether much like cooling vapors of water are attracted back to each other to form water. In the Principia he attempts to explain the elasticity and movement of aether by relating aether to his static model of fluids. This elastic interaction is what caused the pull of gravity to take place, according to this early theory, and allowed an explanation for action at

2688-491: The revived Neoplatonic Academy in the sixth century were drawn from various parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad syncretism of the common culture (see koine ): Five of the seven Academy philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes (both from Phoenicia), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia . Christianity had gained power in

2744-452: The sacred groves and ravaged the Academy, which was the most wooded of the city's suburbs, as well as the Lyceum ." The destruction of the Academy seems to have been so severe as to make the reconstruction and re-opening of the Academy impossible. When Antiochus returned to Athens from Alexandria , c.  84 BC , he resumed his teaching but not in the Academy. Cicero , who studied under him in 79/8 BC, refers to Antiochus teaching in

2800-423: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Fifth Element . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fifth_Element&oldid=1244523257 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

2856-418: The stars and planets. The idea of aethereal spheres moving with natural circular motion led to Aristotle's explanation of the observed orbits of stars and planets in perfectly circular motion. Medieval scholastic philosophers granted aether changes of density, in which the bodies of the planets were considered to be more dense than the medium which filled the rest of the universe. Robert Fludd stated that

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2912-413: Was hidden, when she had been kidnapped by King Theseus years before the incidents of the later Trojan War . Having thus spared Athens a war (or at least delayed it), Academus was seen as a savior of Athens. His land, six stadia (a total of about one kilometre, or a half mile; the exact length of a stadion varied) north of Athens, became revered even by neighboring city-states, escaping destruction during

2968-490: Was later founded in Athens that claimed to continue the tradition of Plato's Academy. This academy was shut down by Justinian in 529 AD, when some of the scholars fled to Harran , where the study of classical texts continued. In 1462 Cosimo de' Medici established the Platonic Academy of Florence , which helped initiate the Renaissance . In 1926 the Academy of Athens was founded with founding principle tracing back to

3024-554: Was the first to have worked on this problem.) Plato's Academy is often said to have been a school for would-be politicians in the ancient world, and to have had many illustrious alumni. In a recent survey of the evidence, Malcolm Schofield , however, has argued that it is difficult to know to what extent the Academy was interested in practical (i.e., non-theoretical) politics since much of our evidence "reflects ancient polemic for or against Plato". Around 266 BC Arcesilaus became Scholarch. Under Arcesilaus ( c.  266 –241 BC),

3080-435: Was thought that through consumption one may rid oneself of any impurities or illnesses. In The book of Quintessence , a 15th-century English translation of a continental text, quintessence was used as a medicine for many of man's illnesses. A process given for the creation of quintessence is distillation of alcohol seven times. Over the years, the term quintessence has become synonymous with elixirs , medicinal alchemy , and

3136-522: Was used in one of Sir Isaac Newton 's first published theories of gravitation, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (the Principia , 1687). He based the whole description of planetary motions on a theoretical law of dynamic interactions. He renounced standing attempts at accounting for this particular form of interaction between distant bodies by introducing a mechanism of propagation through an intervening medium. He calls this intervening medium aether. In his aether model, Newton describes aether as

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